Lessons from Engineering in Managing Change!

I studied Engineering in the 20th century. Little did I know that concepts from engineering will teach lessons in managing change.

Inertia can teach us a lot about implementing organizational change. Most organisations are always in a state of inertia popularly known as Business as Usual (BAU)!  Every organization will remain in its course (rest or movement) forever if no new forces act upon it. Some external and / or internal forces will have to operate on the organization to change its state. Does this remind of Newton’s first Law of Motion.

Newton’s second law defines the relationship between acceleration and applied force. For business this means, if you want big change, you must apply bigger force. Newton’s third law is relatively simple. Every action produces equal and opposite reaction. In organizations even a simple change in office timings or canteen facility are met with resistance isn’t it.

Newtons Law of motions – Inertia, Acceleration & Reactions guide us in driving change but before using them, it is important to understand the various levers and dynamics of change management. This can be learnt from Archimedes and Thermodynamics.

Archimedes reportedly said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world." He proved that force could be multiplied by applying it to a lever at a particular distance from a fulcrum.

In any change programme, it is critical to find the right levers and push them hard enough. This law of lever helps us understand what to change and how to maximize the return on efforts by changing the things that will produce the greatest results.

We can identify four types of levers that can bring about changes in organisations.

·       First, look at the macro-changes in the industry and study its impact on organisation using PESTAL analysis – Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal.

·       Second examine the levers such as organizational vision, mission, values, culture, leadership, people, brand, board, governance, risk, compliance etc.

·       Third look at the metrics and economic levers - customer acquisition and retention, revenue increase, capital allocation, profitability, balance sheet, income statement, debt, cash flow, inventory, costs optimization.

·       Fourth understand how the organization—policies, practices, structures, processes, systems, technology, targets, and measurements—affect performance and the metrics directly or indirectly.

For any successful organizational change, we must focus on the second lever. The fact is organizations don't just change because of new systems, processes, or structures. They change because the people within the organization adapt and change.

But how do we induce this Change?

Organisations and business are dynamic, adaptive, and often function in a closed loop system. Both Change and Work are dynamic and requires Organizational Energy. Organizational energy can be defined as the extent to which an organisation has mobilized its emotional, cognitive, and behavioral potential to pursue its goals.

But where is this energy to come from? This is where we jump into ‘The Laws of Thermodynamics’. 

The First Law of Thermodynamics – Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.

In organisations there is always a tendency to resist change. This means maximum energy is being used to resist change, and hence it is not available for making change. Kodak and Blockbuster, both at different point in time resisted change.

For a business, the energy one puts into the business, will be transformed into the energy of the business. The trick is to put the energy into the right parts of the business. The energy required to change must come either from within a closed system (from your manager or dept) or from beyond the boundaries of the closed system (market, customers, suppliers, vendors, partners, auditors, consultants, management, board, or shareholders).

Many leaders turn to negative energy generation, emphasizing on creating a ‘burning platform’ to motivate people. The Best Leaders rely on positive energy generation by painting new vision and involving energetic, enthusiastic, creative, open-minded people in driving change. Businesses that can direct energy to fast and positive transformation are able to exploit many more opportunities than enterprises mired in resistance.

Today most organisations are in state of permanent flux and battling high entropy. This naturally brings us to, The second Law of Thermodynamics - For a spontaneous process, the entropy of the universe increases.

This law is intuitive and easy to observe. It simply states that all systems tend towards disorder or disintegration or entropy.

How many organizations are closed systems, inwardly focused, rigid, working in silos and monotonous? No wonder they gradually deteriorate because of the entropy. Remember Nokia and its failure to change. Organisations fail to change because their minds and systems are closed. Their leaders’ pride in imitating ostrich mentality.

Entropy generally creeps in due to distractions, wavering focus, rapid unplanned expansion, unrelated diversification, changing market conditions, constant equipment breakdowns, product obsolescence, faults in software and hardware, quality and process failures, nepotism, misalignment, poor governance & compliance, risk failures, and many other such elements.

No organisations are frictionless. Given enough time every organisation and system are prone to these disruptions.

Fortunately, unlike thermodynamic systems, a business can reverse the impact of entropy.

To avoid entropy, organisations must welcome new ideas, open the system, hire new people, nurture talent, share new information, monitor change programmes, measure performance, mitigate risks and strive to foster a culture of innovation.

Despite these efforts, change management programmes often fail. Not all change management programmes are 100 % successful. The failure rates are grim reminder of the third law of Thermodynamics.

The third Law of Thermodynamics - A perfect crystal at zero Kelvin has zero entropy.

This law shows that nothing in the Universe is perfect. The process may be smooth and seamless, yet zero entropy is not achievable. That is why we adulate Six Sigma. Any change programme will have its share of ups and downs, success and failures, intended and unintended consequences.

This means that organisations must keep their business goals and change programme realistic and like any good project manager allow for contingency planning. 

For any change to occur, we must apply more energy to the system than is extracted by the system.

Eventually, sustainable change only takes place when managers identify the right levers, manage the dynamics of change, and ensure the changes, they are communicating are clear, compelling, and credible similar to the Laws defined in Engineering!

 

Obituary – A Life Less Known !

My father Chandrakant Kolgaonkar, a soft-spoken, humble, jovial, retired gazetted State Govt Officer; often transferred for his honesty, and integrity, died peacefully in our home on 13th Dec 2019. A flame that burned brightly for 87 years has flickered of late and now died.

‘Chandu’ or ‘Nana’ as he was affectionately called in the family was born on Aug 10,1932 in Karachi. The Great Partition lead the family to migrate and settle down in Bombay. Charles Dickens famous lines, “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.. we had everything before us, we had nothing before us..” veritably described his migration experience. My father carried the scars of migration but never allowed the trauma of his personal loss, violence and tragedy to affect his progressive, democratic, secular thinking, nor did it ever affect our upbringing.

Dad completed his post- graduation in Arts from famous Ruia College Mumbai. He was fond of books and an avidly read in English, Marathi, Sanskrit & Hindi. He enjoyed reading plays of Shakespeare, Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, & Vijay Tendulkar. The other authors he relished were Dickens, Tolstoy, Shaw, Twain, Jane Austen, Nehru, PG Wodehouse in English & Karandikar, Khandekar, Acharya Atre, P.L.Deshpande & C.V. Joshi in Marathi.

Dad was a teetotaler, had no vices & lived a good life despite his frail health. Dad was religious, believed in fasting and never missed his daily pooja. Dad was not a foody but would prefer different vegetables for lunch and dinner. He enjoyed fish, vegetables & curd rice. As his asthma became severe, he completely abstained from eating some of his favourite foods and dairy products but religiously treated us with ice-creams on Sundays. After trying all forms of medicines, he found success and solace in homeopathy to curb his asthma. He enjoyed reading books on Homeopathy and Astrology. Over the period, he developed remarkable mastery about these subjects that he would make his own medicine and even recommend  his friends the appropriate medicine for different ailments.

Dad never associated with any political party but would avidly discuss and debate with friends & neighbours on politics, civics, current affairs. He was fond of various leaders like Tilak, Nehru, Patel, Lincoln, Thatcher, Kamraj, JP Narayan, Shastri, Vajpayee, Madhu Dandavate, Mrinal Gore & even current PM- Narendra Modi.

When we were in school, he would tell us wonderful bed time stories. Often we would urge him for more stories and despite being tired from work, he would never let us down. It is quite intriguing that he never repeated the same stories and always surprised us with new stories from his incredible memory. Dad enjoyed songs by Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Sudhir Phadke & Hemant Kumar. There used to be utter silence in the house whenever he switched on the popular radio programmes viz; Cricket with Vijay Merchant, Bournvita Quiz Contest, and Cibaca (Binaca) Geet Mala. He wasn’t a movie buff but liked Dilip Kumar, Meenakumari, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn & Lucille Ball. He was fond of Marathi theater and immensely enjoyed British comedy serials. For him the serials were educative, informative, entertaining as it included intellectual jokes often aimed at the absurdity of everyday life. His favourite serials were ‘Yes Minister’, ‘Yes Prime Minister’ and the American serial, “Here’s Lucy”!

Dad wasn’t athletic but enjoyed Cricket, Tennis and Hockey. He enjoyed the epic battles between Borg & McEnroe, Chris Evert & Navratilova and later with Steffi Graf. He would rarely miss a cricket match, and often carried me in his arms to Wankhede stadium. His childhood hero was the impeccable Aussie batsman Neil Harvey. While Tendulkar and G.R. Vishwanath were his all-time favourite, he equally enjoyed watching Gavaskar, Chandra, Hanif Mohammed, Durrani, Kapil, Botham, Viv Richards, Miandad, and Dravid albeit not necessarily in that order. I distinctly remember how he had become teary eyed when Tendulkar made his debut in Karachi in 1989, especially when the broadcaster showed the glimpses of his childhood city.

C.R. Kolgaonkar was a loving father, husband , brother, uncle & grandfather. He has been good to us all: always by our side, a constant source of wisdom and encouragement. He was very friendly and kind to all his relatives, in-laws, nephews & nieces. He has always been very calm, caring , loving husband to my mom. In an era when women seldom stepped out of their homes for work, dad encouraged mom to continue employment as a school teacher. He willingly helped her with any household chores, even babysitting us, learnt cooking and often surprised us with some wonderful non veg recipes. Like any other marriage, their married life was equally filled with joy, romance, emotions, disagreements and quarrels. “What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.” – Leo Tolstoy . Both of them liked Tolstoy and guess this made it easier for them to celebrate their 53^rd wedding anniversary this year.

Dad was a straightforward man who demanded little from those around him, and like every parent, expected only the best for his children. Provided he heard regularly from us all – and saw us whenever possible – he was content. Dad had never been strict, nor very authoritarian and seldom would get angry. He encouraged us to follow our own dreams, be adventurous, and discouraged us from blaming destiny or fate. His only expectations from us was to earn a honest livelihood and become a humble ethical citizen. To me, Dad’s finest quality was his patience and ability to remain calm: an inherent ability to listen, to absorb and to offer a point of view based on quiet, measured wisdom.

In the last few months Dad developed chronic cardiac failure as a result of old age coupled with multiple illness ; Asthma, BP & Vertigo. Every time we would take him to hospital, he would come back fit, to joyfully live another day - browsing newspapers, solving puzzles, or watching Kohli score a brilliant century and later vividly describing me those lovely cover drives !

In the first week of December, he had triumphantly come back from the hospital but his exuberance was gradually waning. We knew deep down he had to pass, there's no way he could have survived for long. We stayed home by his bedside caring, with my mom and sister around him for every moment with or without sleep. They held his hand and walked with him to the end, making sure he was comfortable and knew how deeply we loved and cared for him. I know this will make him proud and that there is nothing we as a family could have done more. My mom and sister were so brave.

I was in Chennai and sadly couldn't be around at his final moment however I am glad that my Mom and sister were around him. My sister tried to administer CPR however he simply smiled at her and passed away peacefully.

My Dad is my parent but also one of my best friends. It is very painful and hurts even more to be not around him at his last moment. He often said that Partition is the greatest tragedy much more than any job loss and guess another one would be to not see his only son around on his last day! 

My father often quoted , “While there is life there is happiness”, we all make mistakes and struggle with certain life questions, but the trick is to accept that there isn’t always an answer and to move on. While there is suddenly a huge vacuum in our lives, deep down I know that my father would expect us to move on.

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain forever. Rest in Peace Dad ! 

Making Talent Management an Integral Core Business Strategy !

Talent Management is no longer a buzz word nor a fad and yet during my recent conversation with few business leaders, I learnt that their chief concerns continues to remain the same- finding and retaining skilled talent and developing capabilities to deliver on strategies.

As business environment continues to get more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, competition for talent will get more intensified and fierce. Across every industry, executives worry about finding the talent and critical skills to deliver on their organizational strategies. Organizations around the world are experiencing disruptive change in the demand for critical skills. No wonder then the ability to hire, develop, engage and retain the right people and at the same time nurture a vibrant, transparent, high performance culture has become crucial for leaders and managers across any organisations.

Today, business leaders are not just monitoring business profitability but constantly reviewing the three key aspects required for any successful business - 1) Continuously redefining strategy, 2) Creating a vibrant, transparent, agile, innovative and high performance culture to execute strategy, and 3) having the right people to execute strategies. This means HR has to play a critical role especially when they are being responsible for one-third of the business success.

Today with shrinking margins there is enormous pressures on business leaders to manage cost, be innovative and address changing customer demands. This means business Leaders and HR will have to find solutions to attract, develop, engage and retain right people without significantly increasing cost, ensuring lesser attrition, with highest engagement levels and delivering the best possible performance. To address these challenges many organisations have designed and implemented talent management strategies and programmes.

While some of the leaders did mention that they have implemented talent management practices but few of them expressed their concerns about its success and the way talent management strategy is executed. While some of the organizations extensively use various tools and methods to identify and develop talent there are others who only identify talent and do very less about their engagement and development.

There are companies who instead of developing talent internally prefer to poach talent aggressively from competition with more attractive pay and benefit packages which if not done properly could lead to internal disparity. This is rather a reactionary, short-term and piecemeal approach which often leaves organisations at the mercy of external forces.

Sourcing external talent is necessary for critical and niche roles, geographical expansion and for some leadership roles. Often the pace of change coupled with demand and supply gaps for critical skills compels organizations to source talent from outside than develop internally. It is important that Talent Management strategy is able to articulate a clear long term talent acquisition strategy based on changing business strategy and workforce planning.

Talent Management should endeavour to be expansive, promote diversity and inclusion. It is necessary to consider sourcing talent not just from regular campuses but even from different Tier Institutes and different educational backgrounds. At the same time, organisations must be open to hire laterally from different industries to gain competitive advantage. While roles in support function are generally industry agnostics, often companies are skeptical in hiring candidates from different industries. Candidates having good learning agility and attitude with proper training can pick up skills and adapt to different industries.

But Talent Management shouldn’t just be restricted to sourcing. Talent Management should have greater focus on development, engagement and retention. To do that, Talent Management has to become an integral part and even core to business strategy. Leadership team has to ensure that Talent management does not end up becoming another HR programme but an essential and strategic component of their business strategy and is reviewed every quarter. In more progressive organisations, talent and especially succession management are even reviewed by board. Its time Talent Management gets aligned with enterprise risk management strategy.

There are various framework available including the most popular, the nine box model which essentially identifies talent based on the two parameters - performance and potential. As performance management systems are undergoing transformation, there is a new school of thought emerging that suggests discarding the nine box model. Regardless of this thought, the nine box model does help organisations to lay the preliminary foundation for talent management.

When it comes to identifying talent several organisations are widely using various tools and even getting external agencies to conduct psychometric tests, assessment and development centers, and introducing talent analytics that provides data pertaining to employee competencies, performance, potential and other relevant information to identify talent. Few of the leaders have even started having formal and informal talent conversation to gauge employee Passion, Attitude, Mindset & Behaviours which are equally paramount when it comes to identifying talent.

With increasing attrition and given the competitive challenges of finding talent, business leaders are soon realizing that Talent development can become a good retention strategy. Succession management process has to go beyond key leadership and managerial positions and should be expanded to include other critical & niche roles as well. It is therefore necessary to identify critical, niche and core roles and then focus on succession planning.

Successful Talent development can only take place if organisation understands the current and future organisational capabilities required to deliver its strategy and understand how to develop and fill those gaps. Development of talent has to be considered as a strategic investment. Mere nomination for internal or external Managerial or Executive Development programmes, conferences, other classroom and online trainings wouldn’t suffice. The advent of social media, digital and mobile learning can help organisations to create more integrated development strategies that include regular formal and informal training, expertise sharing, mentoring, coaching, on the job training and gamification for employees to learn as per their convenience.

People identified in talent pool must be given stretched assignments, exciting action learning projects, job rotation, cross functional training, lateral career movement, promotion and opportunity to shadow managerial and leadership roles which will help in their development and retention. What is more critical is to allow high potential employees a chance to perform and even fail. In addition leaders have to play a crucial role in rewarding and recognizing key talent. Their every interaction must inspire, lead and nurture talent and give people compelling reasons to develop and stay.

Apparently there are different approaches to talent management. There is no single ‘blueprint’ for effective talent management that can be applied to all organisational contexts. It will vary depending upon each organisation’s mission, competencies, their requirements for current and future talent pipeline based on changing business strategies and environment.

While we may debate about it, organisations should have a clearly defined framework to identify, engage, develop and retain talent. The ability to get and keep the right talent is all about focus, execution and follow-through. Successful talent management requires a sustained, four-pronged effort to recruit, engage, develop and retain the best talent available. To succeed, a company needs strong, supportive leaders and a caring, innovative culture. It also needs HR and business to think talent management as business strategy and holistically develop programs that work together and support a cohesive talent strategy aligned with organisations strategic goals.

Inspiring & Influential Women Authors !

Inspiring & Influential Women Authors !

To help honour the phenomenal women in our lives, I have compiled a list of women authors whose books and lives have inspired, influenced and had a resounding impact on my life.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration, influence, a moving narrative, strong characters that strike a chord, women authors have produced many interesting, invigorating high quality literature, articles, books and are capable of doing all this and much more.

I distinctly remember by first book borrowed from my school library. Black Beauty authored by Anna Sewell. It's referred to as an animal autobiography because, unlike animal stories that describe a child's interaction with an animal, the novel is narrated from the animal's point of view.

Even before J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter series, as a child, I was introduced to Enid Blyton. Even now as I write the name of Enid Blyton, it gives me bouts of nostalgia. The name evokes a beautiful warm and cosy feeling. It’s a pity if you haven’t gormandize reading her books as a child. Every Summer vacations, heading to the nearest public library to learn about her new adventures, wanting to read just few more pages before sleeping and a lifetime love for reading—this is what Enid Blyton books left me with. The Famous Five, The Secret Seven coupled with the childhood adventures and bond formed with George, Anne, Dick, Julian and Timmy continues to remain immortal.

By the time I went in secondary school- thrillers, detective, mystery, criminal novels beckoned me. It was time to graduate from adventures of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys to life threatening mysteries of Agatha Christie. Agatha will continue to appeal and remain immortal and so will her two distinct fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Amongst many books, her famous books include Murder on Orient Express, Death on The Nile, And Then There Were None.

This was a time when books on science started staring at us. In those days, one of my friend recommended me to read the book Frankenstein.  Interestingly one of literature's most terrifying and memorable monsters Frankenstein comes from the mind of a woman- Mary Shelley. Frankenstein, the twisted and thrilling tale of a doctor's decision to play with life and death, set the bar for the science fiction and horror that followed after it.

While some senior girls in our school were glued to boring Mills and Boon and other such romantic novels, I was transferred into the Victorian world of Jane Austen. Jane Austen mesmerized through her novels Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park. Her books were big and largely dealt with themes of love, sacrifice, class, society, social commentary and offered a wonderful perspective on life.

It was during the same time when my dad gifted my younger sister a masterpiece stating that every woman must read it. It was the book called Rebecca, arguably Daphne du Maurier’s best-known novel. This gothic tale has inspired a legion of works by other writers. Soon my sister and I were also introduced to The Bronte Sisters. Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte. This timeless novel tackles complex issues of morality, sexuality, religion, class, and gender relationships, among other things. Speaking of the Bronte sisters, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, has been haunting readers ever since it got first published.

I entered junior college and was introduced to another wonderful women author – Ayn Rand. While I have rummaged through all her books, her philosophy called ‘Objectivisim’, you shouldn’t miss her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  I still find Dagny Taggart a strong willed character than Scarlett- O- Hara from Gone with the Wind!

Anyways, during engineering college days, I came across other interesting women authors whose books have offered greater perspective to life. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, poignantly educates you about morality, honesty, justice, humility, ethical decision making and having the courage to stand by your own conviction. The author didn’t use her first name Nelle.

I joined American center library and bumped into Toni Morrison, a profound writer whose novels are all worthy of any reading list. Beloved is perhaps her finest work. Beloved is gripping and tells the story of a freed slave who can never be free from the memory of her old life and the ghost of her dead baby.

I was also a member of British Council Library and here got introduced to three prolific authors whose work I worship – Virginia Woolf, Dorris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.

It took me a while to comprehend Virginia Woolf. Perhaps Woolf is a bit too “literary” for some tastes, but her best sellers - The Waves, Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse  and A Room of One’s Own must surely speak to many.

Nobel laureate, Doris Lessing’s genius is undeniable. Her writing merges staggering quantity with incredible quality. Her books The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook & Shikasta are truly remarkable.

Nobel laureate and Booker prize winner- Nadine Gordimer’s writing deals with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Among the many books, her two books are not to be missed -  Burger's Daughter  & July's People  

While I can add more to the above list, however haven’t included other authors like George Eliot (yes a women) and any modern day women writers including Indian writers. Perhaps that could make up for another blog sometime.

Until then keep reading the above authors. They will certainly inspire and influence you.

Have you defined your HR Technology Strategy?

Are you aware about the Technology Predictions for HR?

Prediction #1: More investment in Software as a Service (SaaS)

Prediction #2: The rise of HR master data management

Prediction #3: HR will assume a strategic stance

Prediction #4: Social performance management to edge out the annual review

Prediction #5: More focus on engagement

SCMA - Social, Cloud, Mobile, Analytics and other technologies are fundamentally changing the human resource practices as companies strive to become more efficient. The business wants more from HR systems, but “more” has to be delivered at an acceptable cost within an overall business model.

Technology allows HR to automate processes and eliminate many of the more labour-intensive transactional and administrative processes that have burdened HR professionals for years. The transformation of HR service delivery requires a fundamental change in the way HR professionals view their roles.

HR has to evolve into a more technology-based profession because organizations need to:

v  Streamline and automate HR processes, workflows and reduce administrative burdens.

v  Ensure standardization and uniformity

v  Reduce HR administration and compliance costs.

v  Compete more effectively for talent.

v  Improve service and access to data for employees and managers.

v  Provide real-time metrics to allow decision-makers to spot trends and manage the workforce more effectively.

v  Enable HR to transform so it can play a more strategic role in the business.

 

Today, Human resource management is evolving into a more technology-based profession. But is that enough?

Its time HR defines an explicit HR Technology strategy. This will help organizations to determine how to use technology to transform their HR practices and market their HR brand.

Setting an HR technology strategy is futile if the strategy cannot be effectively executed. However, that’s not the case anymore. The software to tie it all together and draw meaningful conclusions is now available. The remaining question - Are we ready to use it?

Look forward to hear your views.

Rhapsody of HR Transformation! …

    If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

           -  Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

 

We are living in what Peter Drucker calls "The Age of Discontinuity"- a time that subjects all of us to wave after wave of fundamental change and forces us to engage in what Charles Handy calls "upside-down thinking." Virtually everything we know and all our assumptions about managerial practice are being called into question, and for good reason.

 

In a hyper connected world today transformations become sine-qua- non to provide competitive differentiator. The evolution and subsequent transformation of the human resource function is closely linked to people's attitudes about work, the evolution of employment-related laws, economical, political and social trends.

 

To understand the Human Resource transformation journey that is taking place across organisations, it is necessary to understand the metamorphosis of this function through history. This also subtly provides a glimpse about the changing nature of workforce.

 

HR Evolution

 

The advent of the Industrial Age moved the notion of work from guilds to steam-driven factories. The introduction of the assembly line brought a need for low-skilled employees capable of performing repetitive tasks. Management philosophy at the turn of the century was epitomized by Henry Ford, who often wondered why workers brought their heads to work when all he really needed was their hands and feet. With the advent of Industrial revolution, Industrial welfare was the first form of human resource management.

 

As time progressed, concerns grew about poor working conditions, low wages, child labour and long work hours and work days. Workers began to band together and form unions to protect their interests and improve living standards. Government stepped in to provide basic rights, protections for workers and created Labour department. Gradually, forward-thinking employers recognized that productivity was connected to worker satisfaction and involvement. Soon the personnel profession grew out of concerns about employee absenteeism and attempted to solve worker problems.

 

In the early 1930’s, the emerging field of human relations derived new insights from famous ‘Hawthorne Studies’ that linked improved productivity to management philosophies emphasizing employee feelings, communications, cooperation and involvement. This new thinking about employee cooperation grew from the works of Elton Mayo -- known as the Father of Human Relations.

 

As the decade of 60’s and 70s unfolded, business leaders began to appreciate the production that resulted when managers acted less like taskmasters and more like good leaders, counsellors and facilitators. By 1980’s highly educated group of employees arrived who desired jobs that were challenging and interesting.

 

The Changing Nature of Work

 

The emergence of services industry gave further impetus to knowledge workers. Work became more cognitively complex, dependent on interpersonal skills, technology, employee mobility and conducted with speed. With the dawn of new millennium, the concept of life time employment became elusive and managing employees became very different from what it used to be. Whereas in the past, the measure of a good manager was the bottom line, today’s managers are measured not only by their results, but chiefly by their ability to manage and retain people. 

 

Human Capital Strategy

 

As industries around the world turn their attention to a new era of growth, the importance of an enterprise’s human capital has risen dramatically. Acquiring and retaining new customers; generating new ideas; improving productivity: these challenges place new demands on the workforce and those who lead it.

 

Every company engages in some sort of workforce planning, of course, and has processes in place to source, develop and deploy its people. Yet the economic downturn and the speed of marketplace change have outstripped the ability of traditional talent management programs to meet business needs. Executives must now pursue a more comprehensive and integrated human capital strategy that includes the management of talent as well as the associated leadership, culture and organization components that multiply the value of talent and create an enterprise that is better able to execute business strategy and adapt to a changing marketplace.

 

The Key aspect of Human Capital Strategy is mainly focused on Alignment with business strategy, Resource optimization, Cost Leadership, Corporate governance and Risk Management & Mitigation.

 

 

Redefined Vision & Structure

 

The changing nature of work compelled HR to create new vision and structure. The New HR Vision is to become a strategic business partner and thereby create an environment of excellence and congenial work-culture.

 

To support new business imperatives organisations  incorporated a flexible, responsive, innovative and yet simple organisation design, developed by Professor Dave Ulrich of Michigan University. This new organisation design envisages multiple roles for HR - Strategic Advisors, Change Agents, Employee advocates and Administrator.

 

 

Redefined HR Roles

 

Competitive advantage doesn’t come merely from people, but more importantly from the way organisations manage them.

In many organisations all the four roles exists however several organisations have also combined these roles and segregated them into three areas. Corporate HR team now acts and plays the dual role of strategic advisors and Change Agents.

 

It is also observed that in many organisations Corporate HR team also acts as Centre of excellence or specialists (COE). The COE’s act as specialists and responsible for various activities such as talent management, acquisition, organisational development, performance management, internal communication, employer branding, competency development, employee engagement, compensation strategy & HR Analytics.

Strategic Industrial Relations activities combined with tactical activities such as payroll, employee correspondence, data management, attendance and time office, legal compliances, Insurance, HRMS, and implementation of compensation and benefits processes are handled by HR Operations team or HR Shared Services Team.

 

To support and effectively implement initiatives within various business units, organisations appointed HR Generalist as HR Business partners. Their role is to understand business, work closely with line managers, decipher employee needs and execute specific action plans to facilitate respective business objectives. The HR business partners act as employee champions and strive to increase employee commitment and competence through various engagement including performance management, counselling, training and motivation.

 

HR Best Practices - The Shift from Transactional to Strategic

 

Today’s CEOs and executives maintain that there are three key components to a successful business:

1) You have to have the right strategy,

2) You have to have the operations in place to execute that strategy, and

3) You have to have the best people in the world to execute those operations.

Being responsible for one-third of a business’ success already puts HR in a critical role. But it’s not just about finding the best people—it’s about finding the best people, at the lowest cost, with the lowest possible attrition and the best possible performance.

 

 

Talent Management

 

Talent Management and War for Talent is no longer a buzz word. Its is now part of every HR activity. End-to-end talent management encompasses three main pillars: recruitment, learning and performance management.

 

Talent Acquisition

 

Almost every business discussions today revolve around People. Executing strategy in absence of right people in the right positions is unimaginable. Companies today have realised the importance of workforce planning and budgeting exercise. Although it’s still evolving, it paves way to tackle future demand - supply gap for talent and foster the right workforce optimisation strategies.

 

Organisations have gradually started erasing entry barriers for talent by sourcing talent from different industries. In the long run, this would create domain expertise, talent pipeline, implement best practices, help diversify organisations into newer territories and accelerate growth.

 

Employee referral, tie up with strategic consultants, campus placements and internship opportunities are some of our ongoing initiatives to source talent. Managers are continuously encouraged to spot talent internally and externally and they are also trained through the Smart Hire training programme. Stringent regulations and customer demands have transformed  HR process, introduced background verification and reference checks. Psychometric tests and panel interviews are now mandatory while selecting key candidates.

 

Talent Development

 

Talent development is getting embedded across all organisations regardless of size and will eventually become an ongoing rhythm. HR practioners have designed and developed programmes to motivate and engage key talent with challenging roles, varied assignments, job rotation and job enrichment.

 

Learning and Development function has been established in organisations to design and organise various functional, behavioural, managerial and leadership trainings. Training on health and safety, leadership bonding, workshops on strategy are conducted with greater frequency. The training professionals are now creating bespoke induction, on- boarding, communication and engagement programmes. There is greater emphasis on promoting organisational core values, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit so as to create a congenial environment that binds the entire workforce together.

 

Competency and Performance Management

 

Using technology, organisations have established robust performance measurement systems based on balance scorecards and other strategic measurement tools. From a talent management standpoint, employee evaluations concern two major areas of measurement: performance and potential. Functional and Technical Competencies are getting defined and refined and competency framework are getting incorporated to monitor employee performance and potential in several organisations.

 

Rewards and Recognition

 

Compensation benchmarking studies have helped several organisations to define their compensation philosophy to reward high performers, define increments so as to counter inflation, erase disparity and thereby effectively manage employee costs and benefits. Rewards and Recognition schemes are getting revamped to motivate and retain employees and more importantly to boost productivity.

 

Employee Engagement

 

Often companies apply focus and drive towards capital, information technology, equipment and world class processes, but it is the people who matter the most. Therefore a stronger emphasis is placed on employee engagement and organisation development activities.

 

Several Organisational development initiatives viz; External and Internal employee satisfaction survey are being conducted on regular basis. In addition Open house, Skip level meetings, Leadership meetings, HR Connect are being conducted to capture employee opinions and focus on team building, improvement in employee morale, motivation and wellbeing. Several companies have also embarked on wellness programme through which organisation conducted meditation, doctor on board and health checks programmes for employees.

 

Employee fun activities and other Sports are avidly organised to promote work life balance. Loan schemes, CSR activities, initiatives for ensuring, safe, healthy and secure environment are well appreciated by employees. Such benevolent approach also helps organisations to cultivate strong employee relations and promote good industrial harmony.

 

HR Technology

 

HR policies and processes are generally where the function connects with its internal customer. Many organisations have implemented HRMS and automated their HR process. With the advent of Big Data & Analytics, HR in future has to evolve into a more technology-based profession which will enable HR to globally transform, so as to acutely play strategic role in the business.

 

Conclusion

 

The human resource profession has come a long way since the early days of Henry Ford and other industrial giants who believed they needed little more than able bodies to keep production lines running. The transformation journey has just commenced and it’s a never ending journey.

 

The success of this journey is dependent on each stakeholder within HR and business. In our new age of technology and rapid product innovation, unleashing the minds and creative souls of tomorrow's workforce is the factor most likely to propel businesses and the HR profession into the future.

 

Finally, “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.”-  Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass